Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Happy Fuckin' Birthday
It's been a while since I posted anything. I always take forever to post. I have all sorts of excuses, most of them pretty good, in my honest opinion. And to be totally honest, a week ago I had actually put some things together so I could post them. I'd done some work on my laptop, upgrading the hard drive and making it dual boot so I could run either Linux or XP on it. It was an older Dell laptop, and I was really happy that everything worked so well, and so I had started writing up the whole procedure I went through, along with the very few problems I encountered, in hopes that it might help others trying to get the Microsoft monkey off their backs see how easy it was to get linux up and running on older hardware. I was holding off on posting it because I wanted to make sure I got all the details right, in case anybody actually tried to follow my lead.
Well, I never got a chance to post it and now it really doesn't matter. Yesterday (which was my birthday, by the way) when I got home from work, I found my backdoor kicked in. When I went in the house, the first (and almost only) thing I found missing was my laptop. It had been sitting in the middle of the coffee table in the living room. Now there's just a big empty space (it's not really that big, it just feels that way). They left my iPod and the other stuff that was sitting out (a USB mouse, which wasn't attached at the time, several USB cables, a pocket knife, a web cam which wasn't attached). But they did take my headset (which was plugged in) and my reading glasses, which I had laid on the keyboard and had partially pushed the lid down on. They also apparently went into my bedroom and took a flashlight off the nightstand, but left my Leatherman(TM). Who knows what goes through the mind of a petty thief, or if indeed they even have a mind.
I called the cops, which I hated doing. I live alone and am pretty messy, and so I had to explain that most of the mess was mine, not the thief's. He took my statement and called the local CSI unit (but it's not called CSI here). They took pictures and checked for prints and asked around the neighborhood, and that was pretty much it.
I had actually planned on taking the day off yesterday. It was my birthday and I usually do that as a treat for myself. But I have a project due at work on Friday and it's not going well. So I went to work. Now, today, I'm taking the day off. I've got to fix the backdoor and call my insurance agent and try to find the serial number of the laptop so I can give it to the cops so they can be on the lookout for it, yada yada yada... If I had taken my birthday off, someone (me) would have been here, and my house probably wouldn't have been broken into and I'd still have my laptop. I'm really pissed about my laptop being stolen. I put some work into getting it tweaked like I wanted it. A linux desktop is typically much more customizable than a Windows desktop and I had customized mine the way I wanted it. The only good thing (I guess) is that everything was password protected so they'll have some trouble actually getting into it. And even if they manage to get into it, they probably won't like linux.
Another great thing that happened yesterday is that my girlfriend apparently forgot it was my birthday. Not a call, not a card, not even an email saying "Happy Birthday." That's really all it would have taken too, just a two word email. I would have been happy with that. I spent the weekend just before my birthday doing her favors. Friday night I did her a favor and helped her move a sofa for someone. Saturday I did her a favor and moved more furniture from her house to the landfill. And Saturday night, which we usually spend at my place, I did her a favor and spent it at her house because her son was going to need a ride somewhere and I had to make sure she stayed awake long enough to actually give him a ride. But three days later she can't do me a favor and remember my fucking birthday.
So here I sit, in a major funk (another great reason to take the fucking day off and not get my project done by the deadline). Happy fucking birthday, eh?
Well, I never got a chance to post it and now it really doesn't matter. Yesterday (which was my birthday, by the way) when I got home from work, I found my backdoor kicked in. When I went in the house, the first (and almost only) thing I found missing was my laptop. It had been sitting in the middle of the coffee table in the living room. Now there's just a big empty space (it's not really that big, it just feels that way). They left my iPod and the other stuff that was sitting out (a USB mouse, which wasn't attached at the time, several USB cables, a pocket knife, a web cam which wasn't attached). But they did take my headset (which was plugged in) and my reading glasses, which I had laid on the keyboard and had partially pushed the lid down on. They also apparently went into my bedroom and took a flashlight off the nightstand, but left my Leatherman(TM). Who knows what goes through the mind of a petty thief, or if indeed they even have a mind.
I called the cops, which I hated doing. I live alone and am pretty messy, and so I had to explain that most of the mess was mine, not the thief's. He took my statement and called the local CSI unit (but it's not called CSI here). They took pictures and checked for prints and asked around the neighborhood, and that was pretty much it.
I had actually planned on taking the day off yesterday. It was my birthday and I usually do that as a treat for myself. But I have a project due at work on Friday and it's not going well. So I went to work. Now, today, I'm taking the day off. I've got to fix the backdoor and call my insurance agent and try to find the serial number of the laptop so I can give it to the cops so they can be on the lookout for it, yada yada yada... If I had taken my birthday off, someone (me) would have been here, and my house probably wouldn't have been broken into and I'd still have my laptop. I'm really pissed about my laptop being stolen. I put some work into getting it tweaked like I wanted it. A linux desktop is typically much more customizable than a Windows desktop and I had customized mine the way I wanted it. The only good thing (I guess) is that everything was password protected so they'll have some trouble actually getting into it. And even if they manage to get into it, they probably won't like linux.
Another great thing that happened yesterday is that my girlfriend apparently forgot it was my birthday. Not a call, not a card, not even an email saying "Happy Birthday." That's really all it would have taken too, just a two word email. I would have been happy with that. I spent the weekend just before my birthday doing her favors. Friday night I did her a favor and helped her move a sofa for someone. Saturday I did her a favor and moved more furniture from her house to the landfill. And Saturday night, which we usually spend at my place, I did her a favor and spent it at her house because her son was going to need a ride somewhere and I had to make sure she stayed awake long enough to actually give him a ride. But three days later she can't do me a favor and remember my fucking birthday.
So here I sit, in a major funk (another great reason to take the fucking day off and not get my project done by the deadline). Happy fucking birthday, eh?
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