I am currently being frustrated by some more problems with Windows. It really just degrades over time with normal usage for some reason. It’s unbelievable. You start out with a clean install. You install and update the necessary device drivers. You add the requisite firewall and anti-virus program. You remove administrator privileges from the non-techie user’s accounts so that they don’t somehow manage to bork the whole system. You regularly scan the system for errors, spyware, virii, and do maintenance defrags, cleanups, and backups. Yet no matter how well you try to keep the system running as smoothly as possible, Windows will find a way to make your life miserable by somehow, some way breaking down with no apparent cause.
May, 2009
13
May 09
Bike Upgrades
I shot over to a bike shop today to upgrade some parts on my bike. I’d been having trouble with the tires that came with the bike, namely, they lose air too quickly. So I had the rim taped anew, upgraded the inner tube to a higher quality one, and replaced the crappy Chinese-made tires with a pair of Michelin All-Terrain tires. I also had the front disc brake worked on and adjusted, cos it was grinding a bit whenever I rode.
The bike now rides smoothly and it’s a bit lighter thanks to the higher-quality parts. What I really wanna do next is buy this book so that I don’t feel like a clueless douche every time I go to the bike shop.
6
May 09
You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too
Good news: The antibiotic is working, and my health is steadily improving. Bad news: I can no longer use the abnormal lack of energy as a means of falling asleep early and easily.
It’s incredibly annoying. I get sick mostly because I can’t sleep. When I get sick I can sleep because I’m easily exhausted. When I get well I get back to not being able to sleep again due to the abundance of energy I have, so I’m practically just waiting to get sick again, thus perpetuating the same pathetic cycle.
It’s been better this time around, though. There has been some gradual, consistent improvement. A couple of years ago I used to get viral and bacterial infections every month. A few months ago, I’d catch a couple every quarter or so. and now this year, I went a full three months without getting a single infection. I think I’ll start making looking at the big picture more often a habit.
The things I’ve been doing have been improving my health (albeit much more slowly than I’d like). I’d begun eating more healthful food more consistently, and I’ve started hitting the weight rack (and by weight rack I mean the floor on one corner of my room) with regularity and order. I just can’t seem to put together a significant succession of days where I am both completely healthy and able to sleep early, easily, and well.
I’ve tried attacking the problem from an intellectual, a psychological, and even a chemical standpoint. All methods derived from the three approaches have met with but limited success.
I’m not giving up, though. I suppose that for now, I really just can’t have it both ways.
In the meantime, the amount of work that I can do beyond my weekly commitment to the MB will remain determined by how well this body is able to take the proportionate amounts of stress.
Soon: the No Need For Kaide website (currently in soft-launch mode). Next: The Breakfast Blend website. Later: a new look for this blog.