Weblog Quotes

I have just spent the last several hours attempting to connect to my own wireless network. Why?, you ask. Because.. I don’t actually know. :/

During Saturday early-evening, I set about making a few twiddly changes to the router settings; up-dating MAC addresses in the filter; the access key; typical networkie admin st00fs, and then I left for the weekend. No texts or calls about “the internet isn’t working”; or “the page won’t load”; or anything else, so I feel all is well.

That is, until I come home. For some un-explained reason, I was un-able to connect from my main desktop. That’s okay, not a problem. I’ll just ‘repair’. Nope; still red. Even if the internet is down, the router can still be accessed. So I turn off the router; and try a re-start. Nothing. Scratching my head leads me to turn another machine on, which connects perfectly fine.

Confused? Most certainly. After a brief look through the access list, I see nothing wrong; so end up pulling the dongle out of the desktop, and jabbing it back in. I guess it became angry at that point, as it just wouldn’t connect. Having re-arranged my room slightly some weeks before, I thought the change of ports may have caused a hiccup; as, after booting up, the device would scan for a few moments before connecting. Something it never performed whilst in the back of the machine. This thought led me on to stuffing the installation disk in; but I had forgotten how annoying the damn thing could be. After un-installing; re-installing; preventing boxes popping up; setting XP to manage the network; fixing the XP log-on; and re-starting the machine, the stupid little icon was still red.

I was not a happy kitteh. Looking through the router settings again, I decided to turn off access control; and see what happened. Nothing happened. The next step was to turn off the access key. That changed nothing either. So I growled a bit; well, a lot. I also up-dated Ubuntu at this point, as it asked nicely for me to do so; and since the machine was on and connected to the router, I thought “Why not.”.

Making myself a cup of tea, I stood, rather confused, wondering just why one machine wasn’t connecting; when it had been perfectly okay two days before. My next thought was location. Since I had moved the XP desktop further away from the router, I decided to move the router closer. This yielded little results, and led to further pulling out and plugging in of the dongle. It began to become frustrating, until life sprung into the little red icon.

Yes. We had a green icon! But don’t celebrate too early. The green soon became red again, after I re-activated the filter list; and the access key. .. At least this act narrowed down the issue; or so I thought. Another half hour or so was spent disabling the key, and prodding the dongle; which allowed the little red icon to sit in the tray, mocking me. It wasn’t fair. :’(

Thinking about my options, which consisted of either running a fifteen foot Ethernet cable from the router to the desktop; or from the router to the xbox, I started to trouble-shoot step by step. I knew distance and location where no longer an issue, as I was picking up networks perfectly fine. The dongle just wouldn’t connect. I turned off the filter; and still nothing. I checked the key; and it was the same on each device. I turned off the key; and still the red icon laughed in my face.

I was ready to give up at this point. The thought of it being one really small; in-significant change causing all of the grief entered my mind. After I moved the router back; tidied up; and re-booted the desktop, I pulled out the dongle; and sat for a moment. Not doing anything. Around seven minutes past by, and I lazily plugged the now hated stick back in. To my surprise, the not-so-funny red icon is replaced once again by a green one.

Well, “This is great!”, I thought. But me being me, I wouldn’t be satisfied until I had figured out what the issue was. And me being daft, that is what I set out to do. Knowing there was no security on the router, I set about turning pieces back on. This was where I noticed a change. A weird change. The channel which the router was using was some-how set to eight. Hmm. .. Poking it back to eleven, I saved the settings; and watched the little green icon dis-appear, and then come back again. .. So far so good. Moving on to the MAC filter list, I turned it on; and re-saved. Everything was working well. The little icon was still green; and we where rolling along.

At this point, I looked at the dongle; and shook my head slightly. It couldn’t possibly be. Placing the eleven back on to eight, I re-saved the settings once more. My nice little green icon vanishes; but comes back red! .. NEVAR!! So, it seams, after countless time and seemingly pointless actions, I had painfully deduced that my wireless dongle does not enjoy utilising channel eight of the router. At this point, I just felt like screaming at it.

Having switched back to channel eleven, I re-saved; and the icon became green. Success. Turning the key back on prompted another save, and rewarded me with yet another green icon. Everything was now working as it should. Fantastic!

So, from now on, if I am ever in a rush to head to the hospital again; I will never; ever; ever, manage my network before I leave. .. I need a stiff drink; and an hour of Glee. Woo!

For, I think, the past two months; I have been driving around with another dead head-light bulb. Not web-log worthy, but I’m here to semi-rant at the annoying clips used to lock and hold the bulbs into place.

Firstly, a new bulb cost me £4. I need an e-bay account.

Having opened the hood of my car, I set to work un-screwing the cap and removing the rubber seal around the bulb and the socket it was connected to. Easy. The first bulb I replaced had blew, but this one simply rattled.

I can only guess the rattle was due to the forcefulness of my step-dad fitting it. One of the pins had snapped, which I had to pull out of the socket with pliers. With everything out; un-screwed; hanging; e.t.c. I re-positioned the rubber seal, which had been put back wrong the previous time.

After plugging in the new bulb, the issues with the clip began. The theory behind it is to let it hang loose; place the bulb into the light case; push the clip into the case, tightening around the bulb; and locking the clip into holes either side. The theory is nice. The practical is not. After a lot of time and swearing and moaning and prodding and pulling and finger pain, I took everything apart to try and figure it out. This is the moment I under-stood the theory.

Round two. I managed to half lock the left side of the clip into the hole. However, the right side wasn’t playing fairly. The bulb still jiggled about, and I managed to remove it. Not good. Sighing heavily for a moment, I tried again. After many more moments, and pulling and prodding and finger pain, I had finally managed to position the clip relevant to the bulb. With one big push, I locked the left side of the clip into position. Success!

Partially. I still had the right side to lock. Pushing against the clip yielded little results. So after several attempts I have left it as is. The left side locked, the right side un-locked.

Damage it your-self job complete, I topped up my washer fluid. Two litres. The reservoir took two litres of fluid. I know I wash the wind-screen on occasion, but that is ridiculous.

Oh gawd. I wish I never bothered getting out of bed at 06:30 this morning, after not having any sleep at all.

I had decided the day before to head to town and partake in a bit of grocery shopping; popping to the veg shop; the butchers; the card shop; a few game shops; a few book shops; the fruit stall; and the supermarket.

What. A. Day. Gahh! Never again. From now on I shall promise to go when I need items, and not all at once. It’s a good job I have a car. My boot was seriously full.

How much had this day of suffering cost me? £89.50! I had £1.20 off my supermarket bill due to parking. Worst part? I never managed to find a cake tin!

Oh, I never bought a book either. I did find a set of knives I liked the look of, at £49.99. I shall ask Pertemps if they will buy them for me; but that may only be after I find employment.

Someone employ me so I can have a shiny new thirteen piece set of swexi knives!

Over the weekend, I spent a few hours jiggling files about for the main website and projects area, which allows for easier management on my part.

Whilst I was doing this, I made a small number of changes to some of the files; which meant I had to up-date the tabindex attribute on most of the links. Ever since I began using them I have hated them. They are nothing but a pain in the rear to organise. Every time I add a link into the middle of others, the tabindex below has to be increased to avoid conflict. For some reason, I end up needing to add new links every now and then.

I do have an idea on how to avoid this level of up-dating, but it’s finding the motivation to edit the damn things again.

Also, if anyone knows of a way php can be used to auto-magically increment the number every time a tabindex attribute is found throughout a page, let me know! I had tried to do this some time ago, but failed. It would be nice to be able to use that idea instead.

…you only have £30 in your bank account.

Yep. I have nothing left. And rent is due, and possibly a gas bill; and the internet bill; and cinema card bill; .. wait! .. The petrol I filled up on yesterday hasn’t been took out!

Sh*t.

I am in deep crap.

This week is one of the busiest, and most expensive, I have had in a long time.

• Over the weekend, the shortfall on my rent was due, costing £80. Still to pay.
• Over the weekend I received a letter stating my car tax was due, costing £120 for the year.
• As the tax is due, I need an MOT by Friday¹, costing a reasonable £35.
• I was informed over the weekend about post office accounts being shut and all the money in them being taken away. I’m now required to move my funds to a bank account, yet to be set up. This will most likely cost £1 to open.
• I need to phone a job back, yet again, to discuss the possibility of me being employed. Cost, the price of a UK phone call.²
• I had to nip to the shop for a few items. Costing £11.
• I still need to build my wardrobe, which won’t really cost anything. Yay!
• I just ate a Jammy Dodger. Mmm.

Ok, I think that’s all for my attempted cost summery list. Total cost of this week so far: £247!

¹ I have only been able to book this in for the following Monday, meaning I have to leave college early to get it sorted. So I shall be breaking the law on Monday, and indeed over the weekend, when I drive around; since no valid MOT means no insurance cover, both finable offenses.

² Phoned this as I was typing, apparently the position has been withdrew. Not fair!

Some genius has decided to start sending out texts to Vodafone customers offering bonuses, which require us to text a word to a number to claim.

How daft do they think everyone is? Yes, there are daft people out there who will text this number only to find out they have been subscribed to a £1.50 a text service, and get 4 texts a day from it.

It becomes easy to spot the scam when the text is from -Vodafone- and not Vodafone, and for the fact they ask us to text them; no phone company would do that. You would wake up with your bonus automatically attached to your account, be it extra minuets or texts.

They keep sending these messages though, an initial one that says the offer runs out at date X, which is actually the date the message is received, then a second one to say the offer is extended for a week or so.

I can’t decide if they’re making money and want more, or they haven’t gained anything and keep trying.

Stupid people!

I have some sort of cold virus!

This is big news!! I’m ill!!

I came down with it last night, and spent the whole of it awake; in pain. I had to miss a day of college to avoid any deaths to students and staff on my part, passing on the virus to the food I prepped and cooked. We wouldn’t want a large number of college idiots students dieing now would we? Well, would we? :lol:

I feel like crap at the moment, my nose is all bunged up and my head hurts.

I’ll put some food on in a little bit to help aid my recovery, but I’m a man; it won’t.

I have to go back to the shitty job centre tomorrow, at 10am, to transfer my un-employment status back to them; as it was previously with Pertemps. Fucking hate the job center, they think they’re better than everyone else. I’m going to pull my dyslexia card and go back to Pertemps, as I’ll be seen as requiring extra support.

Yay, having learning difficulties pays off!

I’m a little angry! My work trial at seaview nursing has been extended another week. I was due to either be taken on for three months probation; or be let go, but the manager hasn’t been about all this week so never had a chance to let me know and what-not.

He asked if I could do an extra week, in which he’ll discuss the job with me and make a decision on my employability etc, to which I found slightly annoying due to not being paid for the past four weeks.

I’ll have a talk with my advisor and see what strings she might be able to pull, if I can get a little monies to sustain myself. I still get my benefits but it’s not sufficient, especially when someone’s getting over 30 hours hard graft out of me for no wage.

I’m off this weekend so that’s good news, then I’ll only be working next Wed; Thur; Fri unless taken on.

With working at college in the kitchens aswell, on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, I’m becoming really tired a lot more. It used to be due to not having any sleep, and now it’s a bit of the old and a bit of working daily.

Getting up in the mornings is a lot harder now aswell, by the time I fall asleep it’s time to wake up.

Oh well, hopefully I can post up some better news next week.