Digital Impulses

Setting up an iPod for Isa

So the evening after work today was consumed entirely by going to Best Buy with my sister, buying her a set of speakers, going to her house, installing the speakers and then getting to work on setting up her brand new green iPod Nano.

Installing iTunes 7.7: NOT
The first snag I encountered was that my sister's PC is horribly put-of-date in terms of MS security patches and service packs and was still running XP SP1.  So, the iTunes install failed immediately because it needs for XP to be running a minimum of SP 2.

Getting Windows XP Service Pack 2
Upon hitting the MS Windows Update web site, I was informed that my sister's copy of Windows XP was "not genuine* and thus Service Pack 2 could NOT be installed. I was then offered a link to a web site where I could purchase a *valid* Product key for $149.00 instead of the regular $299.00 that MS charges for a retail, boxed copy of Windows XP Pro.

I clicked on the link, filled out the form, provided a CC and purchased the valid Product key.  Once the transaction was authorized, I was re-directed to a web site where a tiny applet was downloaded and installed on the computer that upgraded or "legalized" the copy of XP Pro currently installed on my sister's PC.

Once all of that was done (MS will be shipping me a CD of Windows XP Pro SP2 for the cost of the product key I just bought, btw), a reboot of the computer followed by once again visiting the MS Windows Update web site allowed me to being the process of downloading and installing Service Pack 2.  about 15 minutes and 75 MB later, the download finished and the process of updating XP to SP 2 began.

That took another long while but eventually finished without incident.  Of course, REBOOT YET AGAIN, and this time i was able to launch the install of iTunes (+ QuickTime, of course) 7.7

Installing iTunes 7.7: Yes!
This time, the install of iTunes proceeded without a hitch and all was well with the world.  Once the install completed, it trundled for a little while and then was ready to be used.  I created an account for my sister at the iTunes music store and then gave her a quick demo / tutorial of using the iTunes music store.

Connecting her iPod Nano
Once iTunes was ready, I connected up her Nano and it was recognized without a hitch. iTunes synced it up nicely and my sister was able to listen to the demo songs that were put on her Nano by iTunes.  From there it was just a matter of ripping a couple of my sister's music CD's to her PC so that iTunes could put some more content on her Nano for her.

All in all, it was a long and boring and (expensive) process, but my sister now has a modern MP3 player that I think she is going to get a lot of pleasure out of.

Good for her.

Drama with Pete

So this evening, before going up to PV to play Scrabble, my sister, mother, sister-in-law and myself met up at the El Torito Grill in Manhattan Beach near the corner of Artesia and Sepulveda to celebrate my brother's birthday.

What an unmitigated fucking disaster.

The service was abysmal, my food was spicy, the drinks took FOREVER to come to the table and the harried, scatter-brained waitress kept forgetting stuff that we ordered.  To top it all off, she brought my brother a hot fudge chocolate cake that was *cold* and then grimaced and said " Sorry.  I don't have anyone to sing you Happy Birthday" and left.

She then returned to the table moments later and stated that she "took a couple of the desserts" off of the bill to make up for the bad service.  Well, that did little to mollify my brother's incediary temper and so by the time the bill came to the table, my brother was steaming hot.

He grabbed his coat and keys, told his wife that he wanted to leave and then made perfunctory good-bye gestures to us outside the restaurant and proceeded to blow out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed, even going to the extent of ignoring a wave from me as he left.

This obviously left everyone feeling terrible and so we got into it over SMS text messages as I was driving up to Palos Verdes.  I took the time to mention to my brother how bad we all felt at his behavior and I got the token apology in response.

The dysfunction in this family seems to reach new and epic proportions with every family gathering.  I truly wonder how bad it has to get before it gets any better.  I hold little hope.

*sigh*.

Busy Saturday

Wow, what a day...

XBox shipped to Microsoft in Texas for repair
The first order of business was that I dropped off my son's XBox 360 at the local UPS office to send to Microsoft for repair.

Copying old VHS movies to DVD
After that I drove over to a video rental store that does movie transfers from VHS to DVD and left two old VHS tapes to transfer to DVD. I was quoted $50.00 and was told they would be ready by Tuesday 5/27/08.

Mom leaves on Vacation to the East Coast
After the errands in the morning, my mom and sister came to pick me up and we went back to my mom's for me to help her load her suitcases and then head off to the airport.  The trip to the airport was uneventful and we pulled up at the American terminal.  I assisted my mom with the curb-side check-in and the tagging of her luggage.  I gave the American porter $15.00 for his help and hugged and kissed my mom good-bye.  That was much less stressful than I expected.

Dinner at Tony's for Feliz's Birthday
This evening I didn't eat at Adela's as today was my mother-in-law's birthday.  Instead, my son and his girlfriend, my wife, her mom and I drove over to the Redondo Beach Pier to have dinner at Old Tony's restaurant.

The food was great, the atmosphere was even better and we had a great time.  After dinner, I came home to wait a little while before leaving for Palos Verdes to play Scrabble with Bert.

Scrabble at Bert's
Scrabble at Bert's was sos-so.  I one 1 out of 3, and that made me 2 out 7 for the weekend. I am not playing badly, it just seems like Bert is on a gold strwak of getting the power tiles and/or incredibly friendly tiles at the time that he needs 'em.  Ah, well.  Nothing for it but to trudge forward and wait for the tide to turn.

Post Career Day speaking at Lloyde High

My mom picked me up after work and we went to the local CVS and I assited her in getting some pictures printed off of the memory card she had in her digital camera. They said the pictures would take about an hour so we left and I promised her I would come and get them later.

A while later my sister stopped by and we made our weekly run to the Barnes and Noble store in Manhattan Beach.  After that, we stopped by CVs and picked up my mom's pictures which my sister promised to stop by and give to her.

All in all, a pretty pleasant day.

Mom gets a Digital Camera: Kodak M863

This evening I stopped by the  Staples near Costco and bought a Kodak M863 digital camera for  $149.00 plus tax. 

I also bought an extended warranty for it for an additional $34.00 along with a 2GB SD memory card so she will have plenty of room to take pictures on hr vacation to the East Coast next week.

After buying her the camera, I drove to her house and installed, setup and registered it for her.  We took some sample pictures a video and I downloaded them to the computer to show her how simple the process is. 

She was understandably delighted by the camera and is just thrilled that she will be able to take pictures to her heart's content from here on in at any family events or other special ocassions.

It thrills me to no end to increase the happiness bars in my mom's life.  Yay me.

Arturo Sandoval in concert: A Review

So this evening my Mom picked me up at home around 1730 and we drove over to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Art and met up with Pete and Patricia to see Arturo Sandoval in concert.

What an Experience!

Truly at a loss for words, for two hours last night, I was about 200 feet from pure genius. I knew a little about Sandoval, I knew he wasa jazz musician of great renown, but other than that, not much.

Wow.  Arturo Sandoval is truly a wonderful, masterful Latin jazz virtuoso.  The band he had playing with him was nothing than the very best of the very best.  The drummer, the percussionist, the bassist, the piano player... all of them were absolutely awesome.  The concert lasted 2 hours and it was an absolute delightful assault on the senses.

It's evident that the people on stage are the best of the best and they played like it.

Arturo Sandoval and his band are a great live act and I will be sure to see him the next time he comes to this neck of the woods.  Highly recommended.

The day of Mom's B-Day

Pretty good day, got through it with relatively little discomfort.  Among the people who called on my status were: Isa, Dad, Pete, Mom, Bert and Patty.

The day at work went well. I was actually feeling pretty good at work, with very minor pain. During the day at work I made an appointment made to see Dr. Bogaard, the Urologist recommended to me by my regular doc, Camilo S. Jorge.

Also towards the end of the day, I got an email from Mr. Smalley at Lloyde High School, inviting me  to come and speak again at Lloyde HS Career day.  That was pretty cool and I am really looking forward to it.

Celebrating Mom's Birthday
Later in the evening Mom, Isa, Pete and his family, the wife, my and his girlfriend and I all met at the Macaroni Grill in Torrance to celebrate mom's birthday. The food was good, the service was OK and there were no issues.  Mom seemed to have a good time and she was very happy with the flat screen LCD panel that I bought her as a gift.

All in all, aside from the Kidney stone issue, it was a good Monday.

Sad & Overwhelmed: Mom and Sis

So.

There I am, minding my own business, having just jumped out of the shower and getting ready to go attack a clutter issue in my computer workspace in my garage.  All of a sudden, my cell phone rings.

It's mom.  On a Sunday afternoon.  Oh, oh.

Sure enough, I answered the phone and was treated to a 15 minute unloading, just an angry, bile-filled diatribe against my sister, with whom she's just had a huge argument.

Naturally, right in the middle of my mom's epic phone call, my phone's call-waiting is 'beeping', and there is my sister on the other line, most assuredly wanting to pull the same crap, to scream and rant and rave and tell me her side of the story.

Well, eventually, my mom ran out of gas and I promised her I would talk to her about it later in the week. So, stupid me, I call up my sister and get a SECOND DOSE of shit, mostly verbatim, bu this time pointing the finger at my mom.

Needless to say, after those 2 horrible phone calls I ended up completely and utterly overwhelmed and without an ounce of energy or the desire to do anything at all.  The clutter in my office got a reprieve and lives to tell its ugly story another day, or week or month.  Who knows. 

*sigh*.

Impossibly Busy Wednesday: Beyond Tired

Microsoft HHH Event
Attended the Microsoft Global Launch event entitled "Heroes Happen Here" for Windows Server 2008. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 & Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

It was hot, crowded and bothersome.  The keynote speech was great with Tom Browkaw and Steve Ballmer sharing Keynoter duties and showing us a whole bunch of case study videos on the use of the new software.  Lines were 20 minutes long everywhere and I basically went just for the free software that I received for filling out a survey about the conference.

Visit to Rojas Inc for Purple Dell install
After the Microsoft event, I drove over to the factory to deliver the purple Dell to Bert.  We installed it and were strategizing about where to put it, when Miguel Insua from Insua Graphics showed up and took Bert away for like the next 30 minutes.

I got tired of waiting for Bert, so eventually I went outside told him I would just be going home.

Picking up the Corvette from Champion Chevrolet & Returning the Kia Rondo to Enterprise
After coming home from Rojas Inc., AJ and I went to pick up my Corvette from Champion Chevrolet ($261.00 in repairs this time around) and then drove over to Enterprise Rent-A-Car near LAX to return the Kia Rondo that I had rented the weekend before ($384 for 4 days).  All of that proceeded smoothly and we were home well before 1800.

Letter creation for Aldo:  Isa stops by to sign letter
I then fell into crazy letter creation mode, getting letters of support for Aldo ready to sign for Mom and for Isa.  Isa stopped by and signed Aldo's letter and I got Mom's letter worked out also.

Visit to Ritz Camera to look at lenses
Before heading over to Mom's I stopped by Ritz camera and looked at some lenses for my Nikon D40.  I am considering a 55mm to 200mm Telephoto lens that  retails for $249.00 plus tax and I also looked at a very nice Macro lens that retails for like $430.  I am pretty sure I will be picking up the 200mm Telephoto as soon as I learn more about what these lenses do.

Getting water for mom from Food 4 Less and a visit to Mom’s
Before stopping at Mom's for a visit, I stopped in at Food 4 Less and bought 3 cases of Spring! bottled water for her.  I then went home and AJ gave me a ride to her house where she signed Aldo's letter and we had a pleasant visit of watching TV and general overall chit-chat.

Corvette TOWED from mom's house

D-A-M-M-I-T!!!

I just now got back from my mom's house AFTER getting my car OUT of Bob Cass towing on Western Avenue in Gardena.

When I walked out of my mom's house towards my car, I was confronted with a sick, sinking feeling of utter disbelief as I stared at the Tacos Mexico parking lot where my car *was supposed to be parked* and WAS NOT.

I knew immediately what had happened and walked over to the no parking sign to get the phone number of the towing company that took may car.  I called them up and sure as shit, they had my car hostage and wanted $148.00 to get it back.

I made the necessary round of "I hate my life, this fucking sucks" calls to my mom, brother and wife and arranged for my wife to come and pick me up so that we could go get my car out of the tow yard.  Eventually she showed up and we found the place without any trouble:

So, there you are. 

My mom has lived at the same address for almost 12 years and I have been coming to visit her for the same amount of time.  Tonight, the bullet fell in the chamber and my high stakes ($148, anyways) Russian Roulette game of illegal parking blew up in my face.

I have no one to blame but myself.  Such is life on occasion, one surmises.