Cigarette fires, Sonya Fitzpatrick, and malfunctioning computers: Things that are bugging me at the moment

` Not that more than two people would probably even care about this, but I had to format my hard drive (whee!), because I failed to properly install a Windows Update: It stopped in the middle of replacing files and somehow crashed Windows XP. For some reason, though, I couldn't do a repair install without a password, unlike last time, and so I had to erase everything and do a complete Windows install.
` (Consequently, my hard drive is now in it's 'goo goo, da da' stage.)
` Luckily, I had a chance to back up all my hard work (writing, videos, etc) on Phil's new system. I still haven't copied everything back, though: instead I installed Windows, my drivers, Word, Mozilla, and now I'm writing this. Screw antivirus software...

` You can see I have my priorities straight.

` Hey, what else has been going on with me? Right now (in case anyone at all cares), I'm listening to some trance music on an internet radio station from EdgeWalker's laptop (which is currently being assaulted by Butters) while Phil is busy matching a decade's worth of CDs to their cases.
` Earlier (Jul 23), at about 21:00 (9 p.m.) or so, we had an exceptional sushi dinner, and then went out on a random walk where we saw lots of pretty bright stars, neat municipal sculptures/fountains, and several examples of the Toyota Prius.
` I also must say that the weather is just so perfect here! (Unlike Ohio, where summer typically consists of either 95 degrees and 110% humidity or 85 degrees with a light tropical storm.) Life is good.

` Aw, man!!

` Now something bad happened to Edge's laptop! And again, it's Windows-related! (Do I see a pattern developing, here?) He tried to move his Documents folder somewhere and an error caused a bunch of it to just be deleted or at least scattered in random places throughout the hard drive! What kind of error is that!?

` Okay... as our friend Joe Smith would probably say: "Let's go into down into Redmond and not just burn Microsoft down, but fucking burn it down!"

` *Sigh...* Are there any other things that I can possibly think of ranting about?

` Well... for one thing, yesterday we had the first fire drill since EdgeWalker has been here.
` We're both asleep and the speaker in the apartment lets out this ear-splitting EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...! I get up and make my way out of the front door where the strobe lights are flashing as the Sound of the Atomic Cricket fills the hallway: Chirrrik! Chirrrik!

` As usual, they didn't tell us or anything, so I'm running five floors down to the office to verify that yes, it was just a test or some kind of malfunction.
` (At least the fire trucks weren't accidentally alerted this time.)
` But that's not all of it...

` There was a fire today, although it was outside, on the second floor terrace. (Unfortunately for unwary residents, if the outside of the building is on fire, the alarms don't go off.) Luckily, we spotted it about an hour after smelling what EdgeWalker swore was a joint... it could have been at some point, but it had ignited a shrubbery. Luckily, after about four large containers of water, it stopped trying to make a comeback.
` How did it start? The scattered cigarette butts in the surrounding topiary mulch suggest a careless smoker. I'm not surprised - a couple years back, someone in B-Building tossed a cigarette onto the roof of the Everett Community Market and it went up in flames.
` Idiots...

` Is there anyone else who I can unfairly label an idiot while I'm thinking about it? Besides all the drunken ones who make lots of noise outside our windows at night?
` And moon the building? (I got that on tape, suckerrr!!)
` ...And fly into a rage because their girlfriend is breaking up with them and they smash the windows of her car? (Or whatever the hell that was about.)

` Yes, besides those freaks, there is one person who, while not actually being an idiot, nevertheless said something that was surprisingly idiotic.
` Now, as EdgeWalker has recently written, Butter Cookies will occasionally and unpredictably grab onto you, kick with her hind legs, and bite you the way I've come to expect only declawed cats to act!
` I mentioned this to she-who-will-not-be-named (la de dee...), and she suggested getting Butters declawed! (She also had said the same thing about Katie, who at least had an identifiable reason when she clawed people!) So... she expects that cutting off the ends of a cat's toes will make it stop behaving as if its toes have already been cut off beforehand?
` Considering, the organization we got Butters from makes everybody sign a contract that gives them the right to confiscate the cat and otherwise make you pay if they've found that you've had it declawed.
` You know, the whole thing about making a cat suffer and be crippled and possibly neurotic for the rest of its life? (Yes, I personally have seen what it does to cats - it's like they have some kind of syndrome. I call it 'Declawed Cat Bipolarity.')
` And what does she say? "How is declawing a cat cruel? I don't get it..."

` I told Phil and EdgeWalker this and they just shook their heads and rolled their eyes.

` Her second suggestion? Get Sonya Fitzpatrick (TV's 'Pet Psychic') to just tell the cat to stop attacking us.

` Edgewalker said; "Wait, she is joking, right?"

` Sadly, no.

` Like the animals on that show (or their owners!) have any idea of what's going on! (Of course, Sonya doesn't know about the animals' lives, but she knows how to find out!) I've noticed that Fitzpatrick doesn't even know the animal's name until she asks, and sometimes still gets the gender wrong!
` Her advantage is that the owners are more than happy to tell her anything and are quick to ignore mistakes.
` All she has to do is ask the same questions over and over (like; "What's 'in and out' mean?"), and makes these poor, gullible people try to match something in the animal's life that could possibly have something to do with her list of questions.
` I'll bet they edit a lot of wrong guesses out (like they do on John Edwards' show), but I know they don't get all of them:

` I remember one time, she was saying that this guy fed his dog some fast food. (A common question that's bound to get a 'hit'.) Well, the guy's wife crossed her arms while he got an embarrassed look on his face and started nodding.
` Sonya kept elaborating, saying that he occasionally gave the dog hamburgers, and ones "with a bit of cheese" were its favorite, or some such nonsense.
` He kept nodding and blushing, but didn't say anything until he finally looked up at his wife; "Sorry, honey. I gave the dog some French Fries once."

` That's not the same frelling thing!

` It's often amusing how easily some cold readers are thwarted by lack of information. Sometimes I wonder if they don't cut stuff like that out just to clue people in that the whole purpose of the show is to be popular and make money, not to help anyone.

` Of course, I don't expect this unnamed person to really understand the concept of this type of scam, as we couldn't ever get it through to her about Crossing Over with John Edwards (the obvious inspiration for Fitzpatrick's show).
` Edgewalker suggested that perhaps we should just say; "Actually, government-funded university studies show that telepathy doesn't work on other species."
` That's almost crazy enough to be worth it...

` Poor she-who-will-not-be-named. If she comes across this post, I bet she'll find all this very unamusing. But, as even I bought things like that (back in the nineties), I stand by what I say.

` Anyway, I really need to get to bed. I have yet to install such programs as ClamWin, Search and Destroy, Adobe Photoshop CE2, Winamp, and Pinnacle Studios 7. Perhaps when I'm done with that tomorrow, we'll have all our computers networked properly and it'll be easy to have all my files sent to me from Phil via the internet.

` Ideally.

` Update: Of course, that's not what happened, but we did manage to transfer faster by physically putting Phil's hard drive into my computer - which had originally been my plan.