October 26, 2007: Min’s Bad Day

Scully’s Publick House on Clinton in Newark, New Jersey now has a web site. Check it out. SGL has been getting a lot of hits from people looking to find out about Scully’s. So far we like it over there. The shrimp is good. Menu is light while they are ramping up. Staff is inexperienced but friendly and learning. The only actual complain would be from Min who was disgusted by the fish fry (beer battered tilapia, eww) and couldn’t even finish eating it. That is really too bad since it is the perfect venue for a good fish fry.

I stayed up very late last night working on Dominica new HP Compaq 6516b laptop. After putting in several hours trying to get the default install working with Windows Vista Business 64 we learned that some key applications like the Z-SAN drivers, Spark (from Ignite Realtime which we use as our IM client) and Microsoft’s own Live OneCare. The machine was barely functioning between the issues with the OS and the incredible amount of pre-installed garbage from HP. So around eleven last night I put in the Vista 32 DVD and began reinstalling.

The install of just the OS went dramatically faster, maybe half an hour, than just getting the pre-installed HP image to fire up. The HP image took five times longer and was dysfunctional and had less available disk space. I need to remember to never, ever use a stock laptop image. It is always so much better to reinstall even if the machine has never been used before. It is the only way to have a reliable machine.

I worked on the laptop until around one thirty in the morning. Earlier in the night, while I was working in the living room, Dominica watched a few episodes of the seventh season of That 70s Show and while I was reinstalling Vista I watched the same episodes after she went to sleep.

This morning was quite cool as I walked to the office. It is overcast today and right on the verge of rain but it isn’t quite raining. I stopped at the Airlie Cafe and got myself breakfast and ate is as I walked to Penn Station. Work was busy for a Friday.

At one I ran out to meet Kevin, my neighbour, and we walked up Wall to Broadway and ate lunch at Suspenders across from the Borders that I always shop at. I got the fish and chips and it might be the best fish and chips that I have ever had. Wow was that ever good. Kevin complained that I never mention people from down here by name – what a jerk 😉 (inside joke) so he is getting mentioned here now. (For my regular readers, Kevin is “recklessmess“.)

On my way home from lunch I stopped off at Borders and picked up “Minimal Perl” and the “Perl Hacks” book.  I also grabbed the NFT as Kevin had suggested now that Dominica and I are living in the NYC metro area.

I was looking on the Apple Store today, trying to figure out if you could order a Mac today and have it guaranteed to come with Mac OS X 1.5 – Leopard. But there isn’t so I can’t order one. But I did find a really great deal on a refurbed pink iPod Nano for just $99. So I grabbed that for Dominica because I know that she wants all pink electronics ever made. We had decided that we were going to get a cheap iPod to keep in the car so that we could load it up with stuff and just have it in there for when we are traveling. A dedicated carpod.

Dominica had a really crappy day at work today.  I can’t really discuss it at this point but it is bad enough that she was upset all night and unable to sleep. 🙁  We will know more on Monday.

I had to work lightly for several hours after returning home.  I wasn’t done until almost ten.

We did pretty much nothing tonight.  We ordered in from Nino’s and watched That 70s Show.  I went to bed a little before midnight but Dominica ended up staying up in the living room watching Veronica Mars until after three in the morning.  Personally I find VM to be extremely depressing and exactly the wrong type of thing to watch when you are feeling down.

I have to be up and ready to work tomorrow morning at nine so no staying up late for me tonight.

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