Family Visit
A mostly quiet Sunday, punctuated by a visit to Digna's to see Tio Orlando and talk to him about the CD Creation project he has under way. I was there for a about 90 minutes and we made plans for me to come and see him on Sunday 5/27/07 in Mission Viejo to help him 'grok' the concept of CD Ripping
Routine Saturday, lazing around the house and then later in the early evening eating dinner at Asela's and then playing Scrabble in Palos Verdes.
Configuring the iBoss for Bert
A good part of the Scrabble time was consumed by configuring Bert's new Internet Security device called the iBoss. Bert was trying to get it to allow connections to specific pages INSIDE a DOMAIN (such as YouTube) even though the DOMAIN itself is BLOCKED.
I attempted to explain to Bert that this would not work, but he continued on stubbornly, in typical fashion for like an additional 20 minutes, until he too became convinced there was nothing for it and left the configuration as is.
As a result of this, we ended up playing a single game of Scrabble.
Paid for L.A. Furniture Restoral Website
Finally, after two months, I was able to go see Alberto Aragon and turn over the website to him. He paid me, and incredibly, on the way home from his shop, he was already calling me to complain about missing features... This is going to ma a major-league PITA. I can see it now.
Dinner at CPK at the Gal
After the visit to Aragon, we drove over to the Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. The food was OK and the service was just so-so
YACP: AJ gets Yet Another Cell Phone at T-Mobile at the Galleria
After dinner at CPK, A.J. and I walked over to T-Mobile in the Galleria where I bought A.J. a replacement phone for his rather beat-up SideKick II. He ended up buying a Razr phone and will be alternating the SIM Chip from one phone to the other to continue accessing the Internet from his SideKick.
SO a good part of this day was taken up setting up yet another computer for Bert Rojas. This time it involved an old Dell "Pizza box-style" Desktop PC that Bert bought for his family in January 2002.
That PC has a 1.74Ghz CPU, 512 MB of RAM and a 30 GB hard disk. Sound and video are integrated, but the LAN card is stand-alone as a PCI card and is replaceable. Which is exactly what I did, going over to Best Buy and picking up a $75.00 Linksys wireless card and popping it into the Dell.
Installing Windows XP was a breeze, as it detected all of the hardware the 1st time and never even asked me for the Drivers CD that Dell had provided with purchase. Once it was done installing and I had tweaked the interface to my liking, it was time to hit Microsoft for nearly 400MB in patches and updates, including XP SP 2.
By the time all of that had downloaded and started installing, it was time to head over to Asela's for dinner. I had already installed Windows Office XP and MS Publisher, so I left the updates installing and left for Asela's.
When I returned later in the evening to get the PC and my car to head over to PV, the updates had not finished installing because there was a license agreement on the screen waiting for a yes/no click of approval.
At that point I canceled the install, shut down the PC and put it in the car. I drove to Palos Verdes (where, incidentally, I was made to wait 40 minutes for Bert to show up) and gave the PC to Bert, informing him that the updates would have to continue once the PC has been installed in its new location.
Bert pressured me for the PC to be ready today. Supposedly because he will be purchasing a desk and other stuff to get installed ASAP for it to be ready for the arrival of Adrian's new Art teacher.
I predict here and now that there was NO REASON to hurry and that the PC and desk will not be ready for use even a month from now, if not 6. I know Bert well, and he demanded the 18-hour turnaround as part of thinking he deserves to be 'pampered' by me. He doesn't have a place for the PC, but he wanted it back immediately.
What a joke.
Earky this afternoon I drove over to Alberto's Fine Arts Furniture to take some further pictures. I was there about 5 or 10 minutes, as when I arrived Alberto was not there.
I took as many pictures as I thought would help, including some from outside, of the front of his store. Just as I was leaving, Alberto showed up and I explained to him what I was doing. I will be adding these pictures to his website when I have a moment.
Another freaking day goes by and I didn't touch the website I am working on.
I am utterly mired in a creative muck. Unable to put the web project to rest for some unknown reason. I just need to type up the content and get through this and just put this thing to bed already. And yet I can't. Or Won't.
I haven't the damnedest idea WHY. I *hate* every idea I get and I can't commit to a design scheme.
This state of mind just bites. Truly. Grr.
This morning I was awakened by my son who brought me some very delicious food from McDonald's. After breakfast, I stayed in bed for a while, reading and deciding what course of action to tackle first on this quiet Saturday afternoon.
After a shower, I tidied up my room and decided to watch a little of the Yankees-RedSox ballgame on Fox (Saturday Game of The Week) until my sister Isa came over to help me break through the creative block that I am in the throes of with the furniture / Upholstery repair shop whom I am building a website for.
After walking with her for about 25 minutes, we worked in my office on the website for about 2 hours, until it was time for me to go to my buddy's mom's house for dinner and then up to RPV for Scrabble.
School District Meeting
I happen to be a member of the "President's Council" for my son's school district and as such, we are from time to time required to attend meetings where issues that are confronting the school district are discussed.
Tonight was one of those nights and we once again made sure to attend. Hardly anyone attended and most of the stuff discussed was of little import to us, as our son will be 18 in November and is on his way out of the district. Still, our voice and opinions are sought out by the district and as such we spoke about the issues that concerned us.
Dinner with my son and his girlfriend
After the district meeting, I picked up my son and his girlfriend and we went to dinner at a nearby Denny's where the service as so-so and the food was mediocre. They however, seemed to enjoy themselves and as such, the outing can be counted as a success on some level
Continued progress on the Web Site contract
After dinner, I worked until about 10:30 P.M. or so in my office, making some slow but sorely needed progress on a web site I have been working on since March 3rd of this year.
Spent some more time this evening cleaning up my office in order to dedicate more time to working on the two pending web projects that I have pending.
I am encouraged at the amount of progress that I am making. especially in terms of ridding myself of needless crap, obsolete hardware and the piles of empty boxes belonging to long-forgotten or seldom used software and hardware.
Definite steps forward taken. Good stuff.
This afternoon after work I drove over to Alberto's Fine Furniture to drop off some pictures he took of some furniture. SOme of the pictures are going to be used as "before and after" samples for a section of his website and another of the pictures is going to be sent to a small local newspaper for advertising.
While I was there, he had me look at his HP All-In-One MFC unit that had some kind of an error message on it. Within about 5 mintes, I restored the printer to working status.
Once again, I need to remind myself that I need to put this project to bed and get paid already. This is sucking up way too much of my time.
Recent Comments