Whee, I am writing this from my Sidekick because I can’t log in to my work computer this morning. I filed a trouble ticket immediately, of course, but I’m only about halfway through the maximum amount of time that users at my level have to wait to get a callback. I’ve been sitting here for two hours so far; I’m afraid to leave my desk because I don’t have voicemail, and what if they call? I just hope my client doesn’t have anything he needs me to do this morning.

I am very grateful that I have my Sidekick, but I still really wish they’d hurry up.

Added: I finally got back in around 1:30pm, five hours after I called it in. I’m dismayed that something as drastic as “I can’t log in” gets pushed to the back of the queue…this is a complete work stoppage for most people and yet they don’t get attention quickly. Actually, I’m lucky I got any help at all - I had asked a guy across the aisle about it because I’ve heard him doing tech support over the phone for clients in the building. He was able to pull up my ticket and help me out.

I might get an actual full-size cube! The space I am in now is tiny. From front to back it’s a couple of inches longer than my - uh, wingspan - and from side-to-side it’s several inches less than my arms reach because I share this tiny space with the fax machine and printer. But they are talking about an actual honest-to-goodness real cube for me…whee!

Misplaced Keys,
originally uploaded by woofiegrrl.

It’s a good thing I touch-type so well; I imagine this would really screw up a hunt-and-peck typist! I’ve tried fixing them but they just won’t pop off…fortunately I don’t use this machine on a daily basis!

A box came in the mail today, but it wasn’t for me so I’m still waiting for my Sidekick. Instead I’ve spent much of the evening playing with the laptop we bought from :MK:. She and her husband bought a brand-new Dell for her to take to Oxford (she spent the Fall 2004 semester there) but she’s not really a computer person so it sat untouched after she came back on December 8th. A couple of days ago she asked if we would want to buy it from her, and of course I said yes! We paid at least 25% off what it cost new, so that’s a substantial discount for us. A decided that I would have :MK:’s laptop, and she would use the one we’ve been sharing. She’s eager for me to get my files off the old one so she can wipe it and start over - it’s had some problems for a long time and wouldn’t mind being formatted.

I’m now attempting to configure it - fortunately I realized quickly that I should create my own user account rather than messing with hers! This is evidence that I’m not too familiar with using XP. C has an account for me on his computer because I wanted to use it when we were up there over the holidays, but that’s all I’ve used it. My other laptop has Win98 and at work we use Win2k. I’m discovering all the different ways to configure XP - the first thing I did, of course, was download Firefox! But now I’m wondering what else to do with it. I changed my user picture already, and I set the colors to the Silver style, but what else can I do? I know there are websites with XP themes; can anybody recommend a good site for that? What else can I do with it?

I do have a CD with installers, so I won’t have to download everything over dialup. (The CD has Firefox 0.9, which is why I downloaded 1.0 tonight.) I think I’m not going to install Trillian for now, because I haven’t been signing onto anything but MSN lately and the computer came with Windows Messenger. If I feel the need to talk to people on another chat service, I can always install Trillian at a later date. My trusted LeechFTP is on hold too, as I’ve downloaded the fireFTP extension and I’m going to give that a trial run.

What I’m really looking forward to is gaming on this laptop. The old one didn’t have enough space to run both Sims and the Vacation add-on, and the desktop had enough space but it ran horribly slowly. I’m also thinking of getting one of the CSI games, but I suspect most of my other gaming will be done on the PS2. But I’ve really been wanting to get back into Sims, and CSI isn’t available on consoles, so I’ll finally be able to play those! Oh, and I have a CD burner now, which excites me even more.

One word of caution though: I’m not looking for tips like “install Linux” or “XP sucks.” It’s so much better than what I’ve been using at home that I am thrilled by this upgrade, and I won’t be the only person using this computer so Linux isn’t really an option (the other users are Windows-only).

Added: Holy cow, this thing has built-in wireless! I’m connected to a neighbor’s network right now! (A is online using the other laptop and the phone line.) I was going to install my PC-MCIA wireless network card so I could connect from my company’s office tomorrow, but I realized I didn’t have to…it was already there! Wow.